Racing: Oulaghan to fore with latest jumping star

Matthew Cropp kicks Foremost to victory yesterday. Photo / Race Images

Foremost won the Novice Hurdle Final at Trentham yesterday, but it's not a title that will stick with him for long.

The Mark Oulaghan-trained gelding looks destined for big things now he has turned to jumping.

You won't get an easier win than Foremost's yesterday, but it was a learning experience as to why it's probably a folly to take very short odds on a jumper.

Foremost might have had petrol left at the finish, a considerable amount actually, but there is a truism in the toughest arm of horse racing - fences have to be jumped.

Foremost ran down the second-last fence badly, and as a result had to jump it awkwardly and landing just as awkwardly.

A horse with slightly less agility might have slipped and fallen on what looked a greasy surface.

There was no mystery why Foremost was too good for the others with the jumping out of the way - at his previous start to yesterday he easily disposed of a R85 flat field at Riccarton over the Grand National Carnival.

Oulaghan is close to a genius in developing jumpers and this is a horse that will keep him in the headlines for the next couple of seasons as his two stars Counter Punch and Yourtheman head towards retirement.

The Awapuni trainer said he'll probably look at aiming Foremost at next year's Grand National Hurdles.

There was no shortage of punters wanting to take the short odds yesterday.

TAB bookies opened him up at $2.50, a price which was hammered back several levels and he started at $1.80 on the tote.

But it took only 30 minutes for the performance of the day and trainer of the day titles to be superseded.

Cambridge horsewoman Ann Browne won that one in a no contest, when she produced Great Northern Steeplechase placegetter Fair King to win the Open Hurdle and picked up the quinella result with Great Northern Hurdle winner Mount Sinai.

The Great Northern Steeplechase is the Southern Hemisphere's toughest race.

A horse's campaign is finished after that great race, but somehow Browne managed to freshen Fair King to the point of winning a hurdle race 22 days later.

That surely hasn't been done in the modern era. It says a lot about Fair King as well.

"The Northern didn't take anything out of him at all. He didn't leave a feed.

"I gave him two days off, two days on the walker and I thought, well, I may as well take you to Trentham and then I can turn all my horses out at the same time."

The solid conditioning behind Fair King, and to only a slightly lesser extent Mount Sinai, proved the winning of the race.

The less-experienced South Road was heavily backed to win, but the going got too tough from the home turn and he dropped off the first two who had the race to themselves.

The Ken Browne 100th Steeplechase Win at Trentham was a chapter of accidents.

The two favourites both lost their riders at the same fence, Barado dropping Ashburton jockey Daniel Stackhouse at the fence by the 600m on the first round and Australian visitor Brett Scott parted company with Mali Juraj a lap later.

That left Mali Juraj's stablemate Wolkswagin controlling the race for the final round and he looked strong late, running right away to win by a long margin for Shannon Doyle and trainer John Wheeler.